Small Fish Case Small Fish is an "image management" firm. It was initiated by two graphic design graduates, Nadine and H

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Small Fish Case
Small Fish is an "image management" firm. It was
initiated by two graphic design graduates, Nadine and Hafiz in
2015. They began designing logos and corporate images for mid to
large corporations, as well as annual reports, and other
self-promotion material. Spurred on by a slick and sleek,
no-nonsense image, they began to expand into advertising. During
these boom years, the firm expanded, with the hiring of designers
and copywriters.
During the early days Hafiz preferred a conventional
(read “safe”) business approach, whereas Nadine was far more
radical and “wild west”. This gave rise to some serious
disagreements about how Small Fish should proceed. Hafiz wanted to
“play it safe” both in terms of the design formula as well as in
terms of business expansion. Nadine, on the other hand, saw
opportunities where Hafiz saw dangers. This gave rise to some
serious conflict during their first expansion, to the point that
Nadine and Hafiz seriously contemplated disbanding the studio all
together. The staff for the most part took sides, until it reached
a point where bickering dominated the working day. It was at this
point that Nadine and Hafiz took a trip to Zürich for a design
conference, and, although there were rumours, no one knew what
transpired other than that they announced that Small Fish was back
in business and ready to take on the world. They returned full of
enthusiasm for “Small Fish 2.0” which they saw as a socially
conscious, aesthetically daring, and fiscally conservative company
that sought to expand into new markets, with fantasies of corporate
social responsibility, and indeed radical design
concepts.
Small Fish was a fun place to work, by most accounts.
The studio was in an old but renovated building in the Barri Gotic,
with big windows and open spaces. Designers, techs, and copywriters
sat at long tables with French crooners like Edith Piaf,
Arabic music or jazz playing in the background. It was a pleasant
atmosphere that reflected the cultures of Nadine (France) and Hafiz
(Syria). It was an afternoon ritual to kick back, sip sweet mint
tea, and discuss the latest goings on. The staff loved these
moments where the intensity of meeting deadlines was put on hold
and everyone, from the most junior intern to the big bosses would
hang out and chat. There was a real sense that Small Fish was going
places, with their design and with their social activism. Things,
to say the least, were going well. Internships were
competitively sought after, both because of the high quality design
(Small Fish had been featured in various international design
journals having won a number of awards), and because of the “cool”
environment.
As business was going well, Hafiz and Nadine preferred
to dedicate themselves to the creative side of things, and decided
to hire someone with "business sense" who would attend to growing
the firm, increasing client base, and above manage the financials,
something that neither Nadine nor Hafiz were all that interested in
(or good at). Montse was hired on as corporate director in 2018.
Hafiz was designated "executive director", a position that
functioned more in spirit (and in large part served to ensure that
the immigration people renewed his work visa) than in day-to-day
operations, and Nadine was made head of the design
department.
Under Montse, the firm was organized and expanded. She
created three departments: Marketing, design, and
copywriting. Only design remained fully under Nadine’s and
Hafiz’s control. The new marketing and copywriting departments were
tightly run with firm schedules and clearly defined objectives that
were reviewed regularly. Montse insisted that design do the same,
and drop the rap sessions (long gone in the other deparments), but
Nadine and Hafiz held firm.The firm did very well under Montse’s
corporate vision, increasing sales considerably. Hafiz and Nadine
were somewhat overwhelmed with the expansion and expressed their
appreciation to Montse, at the same time, they had hoped to see
those corporate social responsibility fantasies come to fruition.
Montse insisted she was moving things in that direction, by getting
clients such as Doctors without Borders and Caritas, both of which
had large budgets, but to Hafiz and especially Nadine, it looked
more like Small Fish was lining their pockets rather than “making a
difference” in any real sense.
And just as they were expanding under Montse’s careful
guidance, the pandemic hit, business began to wane considerably,
and tensions increased in kind. For one thing, the expansion had
resulted in the different departments becoming increasingly
separated. In the face of the various restrictions, people worked
remotely, and of course the rap sessions and anything of the “cool
vibe” were increasingly difficult to maintain. As the cash inflow
slowed, people had to be let go or had their hours reduced, and
things began to become more tense. Even as employees returned to
the office, Montse would remind Hafiz and Nadine that business was
such that there was it made no financial sense to pay employees to
sit around and do nothing (as she saw the rap
sessions).
(the back story on Montse: She had always been a serious
student and hard worker, and very ambitious at that. She studied
business at the University of Barcelona, and got a job at Deloitte
after having interned there. Things went really well for her for a
few years, until she got into a rather big bust-up with one of the
executives. It was never clear what happened, but much to her
chagrin, she found herself unemployed, now in her early 30s,
competing against grads for jobs. Someone told her about the Small
Fish gig, and although she had never had much time for idealism and
art, she was intrigued by the challenge, and decided to see what
she could do.)
In the past few months the atmosphere at Small Fish has
been getting rather uncomfortable. The weekly “exec” meetings were
fraught with tension, with Montse telling anyone who would listen
that “artists could be so smart but sooo stupid”. Meanwhile Nadine
and Hafiz openly criticized Montse for being a “corporate vampire”.
“We are losing our soul” they would lament over red wine after
work.
The tension really began to mount. What set the whole
thing off as that Montse had organized an important business
meeting with a potential client--the latest cryptocurrency that was
showing tremendous potential--to discuss corporate image. That
might have been fine, although both Nadine and Hafiz, as
progressives, were very critical of cryptocurrencies, and as it
turns out, Montse did not inform nor include Hafiz or Nadine in the
meeting. Furthermore, she asked Magda, head of marketing, to
present Small Fish’s “curriculum”, and expressly asked her not to
say anything to Hafiz and Nadine.
Of course, they learned about the meeting, and at the
next staff meeting, Hafiz and Nadine expressed considerable dismay
over how Montse was handling the firm. They felt she was turning it
into a "corporate lackey", drooling for the buck, and completely
betraying the aesthetic and ethical spirit that Hafiz and Nadine
felt characterized (and differentiated) their firm. Montse
responded with a steely voice that a crisis was on, and that at
this point the key thing was liquidity and maximizing the client
base. She asserted that although Hafiz and Nadine were excellent
designers, they had poor business sense--which was why they hired
her in the first place. She asserted that they should let her do
her job (after all, she did not poke her nose in their design
stuff). They should respect her expertise; this was not the time
for "bleeding heart" morals nor for aspiring to have their work in
Spanish and international design magazines. This was the time to
pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and if she had Magda run the
meeting with Zapitup, it was because she "spoke the corporate
language", that the Zapitup folk were not interested in aesthetics
but in profit. Nadine herself broke down a cried, and threw up her
hands Hafiz responded, in a loud voice, that was all fine but Small
Fish had a specific identity and mission, and, at any rate, Montse
should keep in mind that although money talks, she is not the CEO.
He also reminded her that Small Fish is, always has been, and
always will be Nadine’s and his. They were successful before they
hired her on. Montse stared at him, steely eyed, and asserted that
is was precisely for this sort of behavior that she was the one who
should be running the show, that without her running things the
“artistes” would run Small Fish into the ground. The rest of the
staff present were shocked but not surprised. Morale was at rock
bottom, with more and more people either calling in sick or simply
being absent from work. Rumors were even circulating amongst some
of the clients that Small Fish was
Hafiz and Nadine recognized that the crisis meant that
they needed to find new ways of drumming up business, but they also
insisted that they did not want to lose their “soul”. For her part,
Montse repeated her concern about their “bleeding heart” morals,
that were all fine and dandy when the money was flowing in, but the
financial liquidity was the bottom line, and ideals were secondary
at best. She suggested that Hafiz and Nadine really did not
understand business not the local context, nor did they give her
the credit she deserved for the tremendous effort she made to keep
Small Fish afloat
Comment on the personality issues of the characters in the case
and the issues they have ( Organization behavior)